Detailed Review

Website Design

Analysis of ExpressVPN website indicates that the company owners have invested significant efforts and money in their website design. The website provides users all information about the company, their services, VPN prices and contact information. We liked that their website perfectly balances images and text information, without overwhelming visitors with not-needed information. We also liked that their website is not based on a template (like other one-day VPN providers love to use ready to go templates) and it is responsive (i.e. mobile friendly)

Website Navigation and User Friendliness

ExpressVPN’s website grabbed our attention with easy to find information about VPN the company offers. Texts can be easily read by an average Internet user without zooming the page. Further analysis of the website indicates that links are not broken and properly formatted for SEO purposes. We liked that the website is subdivided into five sections, where each section functionality can be intuitively interpreted by any user. Not to mention the fact that the website is translated to 16 other the most popular world languages, which makes ExpressVPN even more friendly for any visitors from any country. It should be noted that their webservers do not respond to ICMP PING packets.

Number of VPN Servers

ExpressVPN proudly states that they have 136 VPN servers in 87 countries around the world. In addition to the most popular VPN locations ExpressVPN claims VPN server ownership in exotic countries such as Kenya, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Algeria and etc. It is unknown why they would purchase VPN servers in these countries as these countries are known for excessive Internet Censorship and not to mention the fact that a medium specs dedicated server in Uzbekistan would cost around $500 USD monthly (with only 10 Mbit/sec Internet line). A connection attempt to their Uzbekistan VPN server was not successful.

Security and Privacy

A company which claims they provide secure VPN services and proudly state that they protect their clients online activity must honor their words. So, we made a simple test against SSL security of their website and learned that Qualsys SSL test awarded an A+ mark to both web servers. We did not perform any penentration tests or vulnerability assessments, but we really hope that the company has regular pen tests and vulnerability assessments scheduled.

Cross Platform Compatibility and Apps

ExpressVPN supports all popular platforms and have developed apps for Windows, MacOSX, iOS and Android 4+. VPN setup on other platforms needs to be configured manually, and ExpressVPN provides manual VPN setup instructions for other devices.

Supported Protocols

Pricing

ExpressVPN prices are not the cheapest on the market, but high prices are compensated by fast speed VPN servers and outstanding customer support. Please note that ExpressVPN states that they will never offer a “Lifetime” VPN under no circumstances, which is understandable as VPN business has high operational costs.

Payment Methods

Customer Support

ExpressVPN provides 24/7 customer support, so we tested their claim. They respond to online chat queries within 1 minute

Speed

In general, your Internet speed is reduced by 25% to 30% when VPN connection is turned ON due to encryption/decryption on both sides and distance between the client and a VPN server. Express VPN speed tests perfectly fall into that 25-30% speed drop theory.

US VPN Test

UK VPN Test

NO VPN Test

Availability of Blocked Websites

ExpressVPN allows to access blocked websites in different parts of the world. We tested access to BBC iPlayer (test was successful and there were no lags)

Conclusion

We were very pleased with ExpressVPN offerings. We liked their website design, functionality of the website, user friendliness and of course their SSL security. We were happy to learn that all major platforms are supported through a native VPN app, or through manual setup instructions. We liked number of VPN servers and their servers performance, but still have doubts on why they need servers in exotic countries. We also liked their customer support response time. All in all, ExpressVPN is recommended to purchase.